The Human Rights Commissioner needs to get down to business

Amidst many priorities, the High Commissioner
must focus on the problem of ensuring companies respect human rights, at a
moment when a hard fought consensus on how to do so is at risk of unravelling. A contribution to the openGlobalRights debate on the New High Commissioner of Human Rights. Español

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The world faces a
dizzying array of human rights crises impacting the lives of millions of people
on every continent. The new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid
Ra’ad al-Hussein of Jordan, has global responsibilities and human rights
advocates will expect effective advocacy and practical actions on numerous country
and thematic challenges, from Syria and Iraq to empowering those living in
extreme poverty.

It may seem, therefore,
that our particular area of focus - the business and human rights agenda - can
wait, because there are so many other urgent fires to fight. But as Zeid knows
from his long stint working with the UN, the relationship between economic and
business actors and human rights is deeply enmeshed. Many of today’s human
rights crises have economic roots or economic solutions, and many deep-seated human
rights problems can be made better or worse by businesses.

The situation in the
Democratic Republic of Congo is one such example, where the hunger for
resources and wealth has fuelled conflict, leading to massive human rights
abuses. The inability of many governments to progressively realise economic,
social and cultural rights prompts people across the globe to search for better
lives far from home, only to find themselves further victimised in unsafe
working conditions with little hope for a decent wage. Business investments in
areas that are environmentally fragile and politically sensitive too often
contribute to destabilisation and lead to further rights abuses.

Shafiqul Alam/Demotix (All rights reserved)

Migrant labours sleep on a footpath at Kawranbazar in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The labours often earn less then US$ 4 per day.

There is no single
silver bullet that can fix such problems. But the fact is that pushing for
responsible business practices and demanding that governments do more to hold
corporate actors accountable for their own involvement in rights violations,
are both vital parts of any global strategy to strengthen respect for human
rights in today’s world.

As the new High
Commissioner considers how best to contribute to the evolving business and
human rights agenda, he can build on the work of his predecessors in engaging
the business community directly. Importantly, – he must help steer the business
and human rights debate at a time in which worrying divides among governments
and other actors appear to be opening up.

Just three years ago, the
UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as the authoritative international framework for
advancing work in this area. The Guiding Principles reaffirm state obligations
to protect against rights violations involving non-state actors. They also establish
for the first time the responsibility of all businesses, wherever they operate,
to assess the risk of negative human rights impacts of their activities, and
mainstream policies and procedures to ensure these impacts are avoided or
mitigated. Equally important, the Guiding Principles stress the need for effective
judicial or non-judicial grievance mechanisms to deal with alleged violations.

Since their endorsement
by the Human Rights Council in 2011, several governments have initiated national
action plans to formalise their
commitment to the Guiding Principles and a growing number of companies have sought
to embed the Principles in their own policies and practices. Over time, the Guiding
Principles may lead to wider agreement on the expected conduct of companies
around the world.

But this hard won
consensus is now being tested. At the Council’s recent session in Geneva, two
resolutions on business and human
rights were adopted – one unanimously, the other by a deeply divided vote. The
unanimous resolution affirmed the importance of the Guiding Principles and extended
for another three years the mandate of the expert
working group tasked with fostering
implementation of the Guiding Principles globally. The resolution also flags a
number of areas where the High Commissioner and his Office have an important
role to play in the time ahead. It requests the High Commissioner to facilitate
a consultative process to explore “the full range of legal options and
practical measures to improve access to remedy for victims of business-related
human rights abuses.” It also calls on the High Commissioner to develop
concrete options and proposals for the establishment of a new global fund to
enhance the capacity of stakeholders to implement the Guiding Principles.

The need for additional
resources to support civil society, national human rights institutions, small
and medium sized enterprises and others to take the Guiding Principles forward
is critical. A recent report by the UN Secretary-General also raises the concern
that the UN “appears to be lagging behind some other international and regional
organizations in integrating the business and human rights agenda” and that
“further coordinated efforts are needed at the executive levels of the
Organization to ensure that the United Nations approaches this task in a
systematic and strategic manner.”

These issues signal the
vital importance of leadership by the High Commissioner. This is especially so
because at the same Council session, another resolution was passed establishing
a new inter-governmental working group to examine the need for a treaty to
regulate business and human rights globally. The resolution passed on a divided
vote, with the majority of states either abstaining or voting against it.

Ambitious in its scope
and ambiguous in its details, this second resolution is partly born out of the reality
that victims of grave abuses often lack adequate remedies. John Ruggie, former
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Business and Human
Rights who developed the Guiding Principles, has
said a new legal
instrument, focused on business involvement in gross human rights abuses,
including those that may rise to the level of international crimes, such as
genocide, extrajudicial killings, and slavery as well as forced labour, should
be considered at this stage. The High Commissioner’s Office is leading a study to
identify the key barriers and potential actions to address exactly these issues.
That work deserves broad support.

Zeid will need to
square this circle of promoting engagement with companies while strengthening
accountability measures. He must find a way to use his new role not only to
bring more companies into the conversation on human rights, but also to secure
the resources and political will needed to ensure faster and more comprehensive
uptake of the Guiding Principles. He must do all this while at the same time
encouraging constructive debate on the controversial issue of a new legal instrument
to address the most urgent and widespread protection gaps.

Achieving these
important objectives, on top of so many other responsibilities, won’t be an
easy task. But the High Commissioner’s leadership on advancing the business and
human rights agenda will be critical.

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